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Comment by Scott Westerman on December 1, 2008 at 11:55am

Recently, a radio buddy was complaining that too many of his friends in the biz were getting fired. These are disk jockeys who have been doing the same thing the same way for two decades without much change in their act. According to this NYT article, this phenomenon is starting to happen in the rarefied world of television anchorship, too.

The only mystery to me is how these people didn't see it coming.

Things change. How you did it today won't be the way you do it tomorrow. Your success will be tied to how well you can anticipate and prepare for change, and reinvent yourself to continue to add value.

In my early days as a radio guy, I quickly realized that DJs were expendable. A DJ who also carried a client list and sold commercials was more valuable. If he also had a First Class FCC license and could do transmitter maintenance, he was even less likely to be thrown over the side if times got tough. I tried to do all of those things and also started studying the financial statements that drove the stations overall profitability. It lead me to recognize the opportunities that were available in the then fledgling cable TV industry, ultimately reinventing myself as a cable guy.

My guess is that those who find themselves "between opportunities", haven't thought that broadly.

Look at the job you do today. How will it be done in the future? What new skills do you need to develop to be successful in that future role? Start now to get those skills. If you're not yet in the position you want, act today as would the person who already has that gig and you are more likely to get it.

The law of cause and effect is an amazing thing. It always works. Sometimes it may feel like it's taking forever to get to your goal, but persevere and you will get there. That's where my favorite Jim Collins maxim, "The Stockdale Paradox" from his terrific book Good to Great comes in.

"You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

According to the economists, we're in the midst of an economic "correction". Businesses are being re-valued based on more conservative metrics. Credit is tighter, consumers are spending more carefully, and everybody is reassessing their paradigms to figure out how to continue to grow as the rules of the game evolve.

The first question that leaders will be asking is, "What kind of people will we need to have on the team to help us succeed in this new environment?"

Ask yourself that question, align the answer with your personal passions, sharpen your skills, build your professional network (before you need it)..

And reinvent yourself.

Comment by Scott Westerman on November 14, 2008 at 3:08pm

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Tip # 144 - What's Your Marketing Currency?
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Marketing is - or should be - all about generosity: How can you add value, for your client and the world at large, that goes beyond your actual product? Here's one great example that I liked from my blog : An e-learning company is distributing video clips online that explain the financial crisis in clear, concise (and even funny) story-based learning.

The great news for this tough market is that generosity currency doesn't have to be expensive - creativity boosts its value more dramatically than dollars. It requires thinking about what your client cares about, and coming up with creative solutions. It's an idea that works for businesses big and small, from the dogwalkers to the multinationals. But you'll have to ask yourself: Do I know what my client cares about? Sure, you know how your specific product, service, or company can help him. But beyond that - do you know what other challenges he has in his job? What about at home? What makes him happy? The better and more intimately you know your client, the more creative you can be about finding ways to help.

Warmest,

Keith

Comment by Scott Westerman on November 7, 2008 at 1:17pm

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Tip 143 - Get to Know Your Client
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I'm deep in the process of writing my new book - wrapping up the final chapters, in fact. I promise to tell you more about it soon!

In the meantime, today's Tip is a team effort, created from a thread in the Profit, Purpose and Beyond Group in the Greenlight Community. Profit, Purpose and Beyond is a virtual conference for direct sales folks, but their advice on getting to know clients can be extrapolated to any kind of transactional relationship - often including people to whom you deliver at work. You can add to the list by offering your own tips here!

Thanks to Rhonda Boyle, Kim, Peter Guzzardo, Peter Reed, Emilee, and Maxine Karchie for their contributions! What's below is my synopsis of their comments on the thread.

Five Tips for Getting to Know Clients

1. Start your relationship by asking clients how you can help them be successful with their own businesses. Are there mutual opportunities to promote? (Kim, salesperson, Severn, Maryland)

2. Ask people to meet for breakfast early in the morning at a diner or coffee shop where you know everyone; introduce them as a new friend and then do a lot of listening. (Peter, social entrepreneur, New York City, New York)

3. When you travel to meet clients, offer to take them out for lunch or breakfast, then ask that they choose their favorite location. By sharing a real experience with each other, away from the office and in one of the client's favorite spots, you both end up more relaxed and in a mindset to connect. (Pete, software consultant, Colorado Springs, Colorado)

4. Share a firsthand story that reveals who you are and lets them know why your business is so important to you. Clearly, this is easier if you're passionate about your business. This tactic prepares potential clients to hear your message. (Emilee, salesperson, Olathe, Kansas, and Maxine, occupational health & safety training company manager, Edmonton, Canada)

5. Ping, ping away: Send them information, snips, clips or quotes around the areas of their interest. (Rhonda, network marketer, Sharpsburg, Georgia)

Warmest,

Keith

Comment by Scott Westerman on October 31, 2008 at 11:41am

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Tip 142 - Beating the Blame Game
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Whom do we blame when we fail? The short answer is "everyone but ourselves." Extensive research in psychology (Jones & Harris 1967, Ross 1977) has shown that when we fail, we tend to attribute the cause of our failure to reasons outside of ourselves: The market was weak. The inputs were poor. The weather was bad.

Think about it. When was the last time you failed to complete something on time at work - and why? Most people will list reasons that seem to be completely beyond their control. But now consider the last time a colleague or a subordinate failed to deliver on a project. Whom did you blame then? Well, if you're like most people, you blamed the colleague or subordinate.

This phenomenon, dubbed the Fundamental Attribution Error, is a pervasive bias that affects all of us to some degree, but why? Psychologists would argue that in our attempt to preserve our self-respect and self-esteem that we internalize our successes and externalize our failures. In other words, we like to like ourselves! Seems innocent enough, maybe even healthy, right? The problem is when "liking ourselves" turns into complacency, and we stop seeing room for improvement. Clearly there are times when we are to blame for our failures.

So how do we sort through our bias to narrow in on that slippery but useful thing we call "reality?" That's where peers come in. Since they're biased in the opposite way that we are, they're a neat check to our own perspective. That is, if we consistently internalize our successes, others will consistently externalize them, and the reverse with failure. Presto!: We compare notes, and start to get a more nuanced picture of what's contributing to our downfalls - and as importantly, of what'll deliver the most and the richest success.

Warmest,
Keith

Comment by Scott Westerman on October 10, 2008 at 2:55pm

From Keith Ferrazzi's email list.

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Tip 139 - Four Tips to Keep a Company Dinner on Positive Footing
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These are unstable times. Though that may not be cause to celebrate, it is the perfect time to invite coworkers into your home - to brighten each other's spirits, find refuge from stress, and - because there's nothing wrong with being pragmatic - save on a giant restaurant bill.

In service of your next dinner party, April Lisonbee, a marketing analyst at Ferrazzi Greenlight and fellow frequent dinner party host, put together this great column on how to keep an office dinner party from turning into what she calls "a complain fest." She offers some great tactical tips that I hope you'll find useful as you organize your next gathering. Do you have any dinner party suggestions? Share them here.

Warmest,
Keith

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Four tips to keep your company dinner on positive footing.
By April Lisonbee

In my experience, I've found that inviting colleagues to dinner can turn into a 'complain fest.' Why? Because suddenly, you've provided a safe forum outside of the workplace to discuss problems openly with other people who understand. While this is important communication to have, you don't necessarily want it to dominate the entire evening. So don't fight it. Instead try using the strategies below to keep it from eclipsing all other conversation.

1. Buffer Time: Have cocktails for 30 minutes or so before dinner in order to let people decompress from their jobs. This is especially important if you're having dinner right after work. With a few drinks and a relaxed atmosphere, most people will move on to other topics by the time dinner comes around. And shifting to "dinnertime" will give you the opportunity to shift the energy if you need to.

2. Mix it up: Invite a few people who don't work for your company, as well as people from different departments. The presence of significant others, or a few of your friends sprinkled amongst the crowd absorb these gripes and naturally steer people towards a better conversation.

3. Assigned seats: OK, not for everyone, but you know who the Master Gripers are. If you must invite them (and who says you do), sit close to one of them and ask a few close buddies to do the same. If they start going off about how Ted in Accounting did this or that, you and your accomplices can quickly change the conversation to something more enjoyable. I like using The Office as a natural transition: "I know, it reminds me of the time Dwight did. . . ". Suddenly everyone's talking about The Office and then Lost and then on and on and NOT about troubles at work.

4. Ask a question: Steer the conversation to greater heights by asking your guests to each answer in turn a "big picture" question, something along the lines of the famous "If you could have five people at a dinner party" cliché. Or ask each guest to bring a question with them the party. Throw them all in a bowl and have everyone choose one.
Bon appétit!

Comment by Scott Westerman on October 9, 2008 at 12:27pm

From Keith Ferrazzi's email list.

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Tip 138 - Why You Shouldn't Vote in a Fire House
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"Suspend your prejudice."

That's often my first piece of advice for people who want to open up and truly connect with a broader range of people than they have in the past.

Sometimes we give greater weight to our prejudices by calling them our "gut." A recent study on priming, which I heard about through Internet entrepreneur Auren Hoffman's blog, reminded me exactly why we should think very carefully about our "gut level" decision-making.

The study, led by an assistant professor of marketing at Wharton, looked at whether where people voted affected how they voted. What he found was that people who voted in a church were more likely to put more weight into social issues while in the ballot box, people who voted in fire houses focused more on safety, and people who voted in schools shifted more attention to education-related issues.

Psychologists call this effect priming. Simply put, as a species we're incredibly susceptible to suggestion.

Jim Mourey, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and the head of my Greenlight Research Institute, had even more to tell me about priming. In his current research, he primes his subjects by having them read paragraphs with singular or collective pronouns, or view advertisements reinforcing either individualism or collectivism. What he's found is that when primed by collective pronouns, his subjects become more susceptible to marketing tactics such as product bundling, cross-selling, and up-selling, without being at all aware of it.

So, if the research holds true, load your sales pitch with collective pronouns, emphasizing belongingness and togetherness, and people are statistically more likely to buy bundles of your products in the back of the room. Take that to the bank!

Jim tells me that a colleague of his is studying another type of priming, the letter effect. Apparently because my name is Keith Ferrazzi, I'm more likely to prefer things that begin with a K or an F. Blogger Auren Hoffman mentions this too, in citing a passage from the book The Happiness Hypothesis: "Men named Lawrence and women named Laurie are more likely to become lawyers. Louis and Louise are more likely to move to Louisiana or St. Louis, and George and Georgina are more likely to move to Georgia."

The point here isn't that we're incapable of rational decision-making, just that it's important that we scrutinize the process carefully. To bring this back to relationships, consider that your attitudes toward any given individual may be "primed" by factors that should be ignored, or at least weighted. Recognizing the effect may help you push past prejudices and give a new person a fair shot at becoming a trusted ally. Want to talk more about priming? Visit the forum.

Warmest,
Keith

Comment by Scott Westerman on September 9, 2008 at 3:42pm

Using Math to create loyalty.. Keith Ferrazzi’s friend Chip Conley, author of the new book “Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow” and CEO of Joie de Vivre hotels.

On his web site, ChipConley.com, Chip offers advice on how to engender loyalty:

“Psychologist John Gottman created a landmark study on marriage and found that successful relationships averaged a 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative interactions. Other studies in the business world have put this ratio at 3 to 1 with respect to what drives productivity in employees. If your workplace is more focused on giving feedback only when something is going wrong, as opposed to celebrating what’s going right, you may end up with a high divorce rate with your employees (I’m proud to say that our employee turnover rate is one-fourth the hospitality industry average). These same ratios can also apply to your relationships with your customers, and, miraculously to your investors, too.” Join my blog conversation and see what others are saying.

My friend and fellow Spartanology member, Jeff Smith, is a master at this activity. He is one of the most well-read guys on earth and regularly sends me links and articles that he knows interest me. I often feel like I’m on the cutting information edge thanks to Jeff. As you study your club membership, what are your individual members’ interests? As you read and surf, keep them in mind and share what you learn.

Comment by Scott Westerman on September 9, 2008 at 3:40pm

I found this interesting link on motivation. As John Wesley writes, "Motivation requires a delicate balance of communication, structure, and incentives. These 21 tactics will help you maximize motivation in yourself and others."

Comment by Gary Mescher on September 9, 2008 at 7:39am

P.S. - Michigan State University has nearly 450,000 alumni around the world. I met one of them (he's a Detroit area native working as an auto company exec in Japan) this past Saturday at a post game tailgate. Tony is a child of the 60's and graduated in the early 70's. He told me that he is a long time member of the MSU Alumni Association and considers it part of his overall backing of MSU. That story reminds me to encourage all Spartans to support the university and broaden their own networking opportunities by joining the alumni association at http://www.msualum.com/

Comment by Gary Mescher on September 9, 2008 at 7:14am

Many of my personal friendships and professional relationships have been shaped by networking with Spartans. My son Joe read "Never Eat Alone" not long after graduating from MSU in 2004 and recommended it to me - and I've done the same to dozens of young people as well. The book's premise is at the core of Joe's blog - http://firstcollegenowwhat.wordpress.com/ - which I also recommend to MSU students and recent Spartan alums.

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